Thursday, 28 April 2011

If you woke up because you heard a noise on Tuesday night, you might not have known or cared what it was you heard. But wake up Wednesday morning and you will realise that the noise you heard was the sound of the Internet bubble of trust, bursting.

The recent news that Sony seemingly cares less about personal data, than its trustworthy reputation, should be a concern for everyone, not just its 70 million identity theft prone zombies customers. While the confidence hit and damage to Sonys reputation is one thing, the general public are quite rightly asking the question; if a global giant such as this can be so casual about personal data, who else can't we trust? I fear the answer is "quite a few" and that isn't going to give a helping hand to a global recovery. As someone who is potentially impacted by this, I know that I will be even more cautious about who holds my financial information in particular, even going so far as to withhold my custom.

One hopes that Sony will publish its security inadequacies so that others may benefit from hindsight, but I'm not hopeful of that given their previous form when it comes to public communication. Maybe the American public will lend a hand. Although I've not yet seen any mention of a lawsuit against Sony, it surely can't be long.

Still, if there was a bright-side to this episode, I'll find it. With all the marketing dollars that Sony is going to have to pump to rebuild confidence in its online retail service and its brand reputation, the boys and girls in the colouring-in department are surely spared of redundancy!